Kontextmaschine

24th May 2023

Post reblogged from Marta Monica Jaramillo Restrepo AKA La Tuti with 63 notes

The Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo
It’s Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday which is unusually popular in the United States among white northerners who are currently at their favorite Mexican restaurant eating tacos and drinking flights of margaritas. The hospital where I work at is serving bad “Mexican” food in the cafeteria and later in the day I’m going to attempt to make fried ice cream in my air fryer. Like seriously I don’t think people outside of the US understand how popular Cinco de Mayo is to Americans. In addition I doubt few Americans who are not of Mexican ancestry know why Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. Many assume it has something to do with Mexican independence. It is not. Rather it is a part of Mexican history that few know about outside of Mexico. And like many things that few Americans know about, it also involves the French.
In the 1860’s Mexico owed a lot of money to France which it could not pay back. In 1862 France demanded their money back, and when Mexico couldn’t pay up, France sent an invasion force. While the French invasion of Mexico was justified as a large repo operation, in reality it was Emperor Napoleon III’s opportunity to take control of the county, install a puppet ruler, and restore French influence in the Americas. At the time the French Army was considered the best in the world, with the best training, the best equipment, the best commanders, and the best tactics and organization. The Prussians would disprove this notion in less than a decade but that’s another story. By contrast Mexico could barely afford to have an army. The Mexican Army was poorly trained and poorly equipped. Many of the weapons used by Mexican regulars were old and obsolete, often leftover British muskets from the Napoleon Wars which were sold as cheap military surplus. Much of the Mexican Army were militia forces which were armed with whatever they could get their hands on, sometimes just machetes and farm tools.
The French invaded with ferocity and quickly dealt out defeat after defeat against Mexico. On the advance towards Mexico City, the French Army was halted at Puebla, just 80 miles southeast of the capitol. There Mexican forces under the command of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza had gathered together a force of 4,500 men, most of whom were local militia. The outskirts of the city were flanked by two large hills atop of which were two fortresses, Fort Loredo and Fort Guadalupe. Around the hills Zaragoza ordered the construction of a network of trenches, ramparts, and other defensive obstacles. On May 5th, 1862 6,500 French soldiers assaulted Puebla under the command of Gen. Charles de Lorencez. While the Mexicans were outclassed in every way possible, they had a large advantage in that they held an extremely well fortified position. The French tried to bombard Puebla into submission, however Mexican fortifications were at such a height that few French cannons had the elevation necessary to hit the Mexican trenches and ramparts. Thus the French conducted three attempts to storm the Mexican fortifications without effective artillery support. Each attempt failed with heavy casualties. After the third attempt, Zargoza ordered his troops and light cavalry to counterattack, and the Mexicans drove the French off the field. The Mexicans suffered 220 casualties, the French suffered around 770.
News of victory over the French spread across Mexico, providing a much needed morale boost for the Mexican people. President Benito Juarez even declared the day a national holiday; Cinco de Mayo. The victory was short lived, however, as the French simply reorganized, counter attacked, and successfully took over the country. Regardless the Mexicans showed that they could stand their ground against the best army in the world and even get in a good stiff right hook now and then. And of course the French found out that invading Mexico was the easy part. Controlling and occupying Mexico was much more difficult. But that’s another story and my margarita is getting warm. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Tagged: history holidays